In late September, retired senior US military officials were part of a delegation that went to Egypt on a visit organised by Virginia-based think tank the Westminster Institute (WI), returning to Washington DC to hail the Egyptian military's intervention and deny there had been a coup.

The US Presidential election was a disaster for the religious right, which had again tied its faith to the partisan political agenda of the Republican Party, says Jim Wallis, CEO of the progressive evangelical Sojourners magazine and movement. Research into shifting populations and voting patterns shows why the religious right’s leaders will no longer be able to control or easily co-opt the meaning of the term “evangelical,” he argues. There is a new, diverse coalition for a new America emerging, and a changing evangelical demographic is a central part of that.

Most people in America, whether they are religious or not, prefer consistency in the faith community to hypocrisy, says Jim Wallis. One of the reasons the fastest growing demographic in religious affiliation surveys is now “none of the above” is that too many people see more religious hypocrisy than consistency. In this reflection, the CEO of of Sojourners in the USA argues that evangelicals, in particular, are apt to get their values in a muddle in the political arena, not least by ignoring or sidelining the huge biblical emphasis on concern for the poor and vulnerable as a criterion for looking at the impact of human endeavour.

What does the liquid insurgency of the Tea Party movement in the United States mean for political processes on both sides of the Atlantic? Simon Barrow compares and contrasts government, opposition and voter disaffiliation in the UK and the USA.

Cheaply produced (if expensive to consume), Sarah Palin is a popular commodity whose religious saleability is evidenced by the merchandise generated around her, says Jeremy Biles. He compares and contrasts this phenomenon with that of the destroyed 'Touchdown Jesus' statue and asks what the iconography of faith says about actual belief.